


The Grey

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Apocalypse, Extinction, Horror, Inception - Freeform, Kind of wonky by my standards, Minor Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Natural Disasters, POV First Person, Pre-Slash, Preditors, Protective Derek, The Fifth Wave, The Host - Freeform, not flushed out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 08:36:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8790919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: This is based on a dream I've had twice now, so suspend your disbelief. It's a hint of The Fifth Wave and a dash of The Host. Unbeta'd. Un-re-readthrough'd.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for 1st POV. I detest 1st POV but I didn't think I could do it in 3rd. Maybe if I ever re-write this. I also fluctuated between trying to make details make sense and giving in to just letting it happen how it happened in my dream, so it's a little wonkier than it already is because its fluid like a dream.
> 
> You need your Suspend Disbelief goggles on.
> 
> Just a quick thing that honestly does no justice to my dream-if only I could play it on a screen.

When our world ended, it happened in two waves.

The first we had seen coming. We had warning. We thought we were prepared. How prepared? We were trained to get to our “safe spaces” and we were all divided among them. Groups of kids by this inside wall, a group of kids by that inside wall, STAY WITH YOUR GROUP. So, we were prepared, in the best way a public school with only so much infrastructure of questionable integrity and so many kids, could be.

This means we all hustled into cattle position as alarms blared and teachers shouted, most of us dry faced, some of us teary faced, a whimper heard in some sections, maybe. For the most part it was quiet. My section was quiet. The sections around me were quiet, tense. Worried.

Those of us near enough to windows to vaguely see through the windows were our alarm bell. A shout, a pointed finger, and with a little maneuvering, it was clear in view. A colossal tornado was heading our way. It was fat, it was grey, and the sky above it was shades of black. It looked too big to be real, none of us had ever seen a tornado that big, let alone a tornado period. Sure, there’d been threats. But no tornados ever seemed to form. 

But this one had girls, boys, teachers, moaning and gasping and shrieking in fear. The silence had been broken. We watched in impending doom as it destroyed only trees and grass and plains from its position. On that side of our school there was no city, there was our rural population. The direction it was raging toward, however, was our metropolis. 

The girl beside me started saying her prayers, she forced everyone to link up hands. And kids were so petrified, they did.

_Dear God, please protect our building and all of us in it, please keep us from harm, please keep us safe. Please God, keep my family safe, keep our families safe._

She seemed to be looking at the streets, as if she could see the way the other tornadoes ravaged the streets, eating cars like treats as it went. So many tornados, this is not what we had been warned for. Really bad storms? Yes. A tornado or two? Yes. A giant, impossible tornado with several brothers or sisters at the same time, ravaging our city? No. 

_Please protect the people on the street, in cars or too far to make it to shelter. Please keep us all safe._

No one in our little hand huddle was sure how much good a prayer would do, but we let her have it.

In my head I prayed for my dad to be safe. I didn’t want to lose my dad.

Outside, the tornado had passed us, and along the way, disappeared. We thought we were safe. We thought it was over.

__________

The second wave was literally a wave. 

We don’t know how it formed, or how it formed so quickly. We didn’t even get a day of rest. One second everyone’s finding their way home, because nobody is composed enough to go through will school and everyone wants to make sure their homes are still standing and assure themselves their entire heart and home had not be completely destroyed.

The next second, a girl is running, and screaming through her sobs “It’s coming. It’s coming. RUN.” As loudly and as shrilly as she could. As if, in hindsight, that would have helped.

“What’s coming” Someone near me had shouted back.

“The water” she had screamed back, and in the next moment she was out of earshot, barely more than a spec she was running that fast. 

Around me, faces were clueless. Some bodies stopped, looked around, some slowed their walk. The smart ones kept walking, maybe a little faster with their wary, twitchy nerves.

But then the rumbling started, a deep, thundering low growl. We had seconds to realize what was happening. But seconds were not enough.

All at once, people started to run as fast as they could. Behind us, water crashed in. There was no slow creeping, there was no rain flooding-it was a tsunami, even though we were nowhere near a coast. 

We did the only thing we could-we ran for higher ground. I’d seen _The Fifth Wave_ , we had to get to higher ground. We had to get to a structure high enough that when the water rose it couldn’t possibly rise high enough to drown us all. 

We just…had to run….to a building….

But the waves got us before we could. 

It wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t easy. It was like being hit by a train, only the force of a wave hurt more than a train ever could-that least, that was my going theory. The pressure on both sides was crushing my chest and I couldn’t tell up from down. It was by luck that I was spit out above the water, trying to ride the crest as drowned everything in its path.

It was by luck that I managed to grab onto a steel frame of a building in progress. I shoved myself into a higher nook as the water rushed near me, but I had only seconds if I wanted to stay out of its path. So, soaking feet and all, I found the parts of the structure that I could repurpose into stairs. Determined, I marched up my jungle gym. It was extremely tall, and I had to chant to myself not to look down. Of course, I had a nice cushion of water, but that wouldn’t exactly be helpful. 

For every inch I gained, the water gained with me. For every foot, I had to push myself faster to outrun the enemy below me. Lucky few managed to follow my head and climb up to join me. Maybe about 30 of us total, by the time we found the one floor near the very top that had flooring. I wasn’t going to question why one floor was stocked with all the previsions we would need to survive or why everyone was now dry. To my front, other tall structures stood, so close that I knew we could climb onto them if someone would just let me. I just knew I could climb to them the same way I had climbed this structure. Sure, there’d be a tricky jump or two, but we needed…. We needed more food, we need to get away from here. The water was still below us, trapping us in this skyscraper. As far as we knew, everyone else was dead. Our schoolmates, our loved ones. Strangers. 

My family was dead. I couldn’t bring them with me. Not my dad, not Scott, not even Scott’s mom. I would never see them again. Did they die? Were they in pain? 

“What are you doing?” I was asked.

“That structure over there, we need to get to it for safety.” It was a taller structure-at least in terms of the ball design I was pointing to was higher than where we were standing. It was green and horrendous and reminded me of the Simpsons but maybe it had food. There were cables attached here and there, and I knew I could make it. It was like a puzzle and I loved solving puzzles. I could feel myself itching to get over there, to get to higher ground.

But no one around me would let me go. It now looked like I was looking at those buildings through a rear window.

The next thing I noticed, I was in the trunk area of a car and we were driving to get our provisions. Around me, tall sky scrapers stood and on the ground, few people walked. Most of them looked ravaged and worn, homeless. The certainly looked scary.

Beside me, Derek nudged my leg with his.

“It’ll be okay.” He tried to smile. We were all worried, but provisions were important. We needed to keep ourselves alive. I grabbed his hand that was on my knee, and squeezed it for reassurance, before we both jostled as the car stopped. 

As we got out and started walking the streets, I had to remind everyone. “No looking at their eyes, avoid them at all costs.”

A quiet, murmured assenting reached my ears. Slowly, careful to avoid eye contact with all the other people, we made our way into the store. I had my bag with me and I filled it up with everything I could get my hands on, in greed. Pringles, chocolate, Gatorade, and other non-perishables. They were all on the same carousel and they all seemed to restock, so I grabbed more and more and stuffed them into my bag as calmly as I could. No one would be going hungry tonight, or for a while.

To my left, sharp movement caught my eye and my heart froze. Humans, not in my faction, we bumbling around with too-quick moments, too much desperation on their faces. One of the two boys caught my eye and froze as well. I recognized them immediately. They went to my school. With my eyes, I motioned them into the empty, safe room next door. 

“What are you doing?” I hissed, as they walked up to me. The gave a half-hearted shrug but didn’t meet my eyes. “You know you can’t do that. It’s dangerous. Your movements have to be slow and controlled.”

Near me, I saw Derek fiddling with displays as he pretended not to listen in. That man never let me out of his sight when we left our skyscraper. Not really. If I was in danger, he’d expose himself just to save me.

They nodded, cowed, and walked off, subdued. Slowly they started filling their bags, before they walked out, as Derek walked to me.

But my attention was diverted to my right. Near a newsstand, a brunette stood, tears forming in her eyes. She rushed to my companion and held him tightly-unaware of her actions and lucky that we were in a secluded room where no one could see her outburst.

“You’re alive. I thought I’d never see you again. Laura’s dead, they’re all gone. I never thought I’d see you again.”

“How are you alive” Derek asked, pulling back.

She sniffed as she told us about the survivors that had managed to gather on a building a good distance from us. That included the two idiots that almost got caught.

“Come with us,” I offered. This was Derek’s sister. 

She nodded and we all walked out, bags filled with all the food we’d need. But the scary old, silver-haired lady in the ratty crochet neck-scarf stopped me. 

“You’re human” she rasped.

“No we’re not” I answered. Inside I was squirming but on the outside I was calm, authoritative. I could feel my power in my bones. 

Her grey eyes met mine, before they looked over my companions who were unaware of our little side-show. 

Her grip on my arm tightened and I could almost feel the saliva filling her mouth as she looked at her nummy treat.

“No, we’re not.” I reaffirmed. She looked at me and I used that moment to flash my own eyes grey. I did it in protection but she didn’t have to know that. In her mind, these were my humans for slaughter. Mine to quietly pray on. She would not take what was mine.

The smirk that crossed her face said “I see”, and with a wicked smugness, she let me go.


End file.
